Into the Woods
by athebeach
Summary: Owen takes Cristina camping. She's less than amused. One-Shot.


**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

**

* * *

**

"I get it already. You're having a good day."

"Correction," Cristina laughed. "I'm having a _great _day."

Meredith rolled her eyes towards her as they continued to walk across the hospital bridge. Cristina really was having a great day. It was as if the universe suddenly remembered the fifty hours of clinic duty that she was forced into performing earlier in the week and decided to make amends. Once she saw that Teddy had assigned her to perform two solo valve replacements later in the day, she was struck with the insatiable need to find Meredith - and brag.

She was about to tell her about the emergency aortic dissection that she had scrubbed in on in the morning when she suddenly spotted Owen gesturing excitedly through the Chief's office window. Intrigued, Cristina grabbed Meredith's arm and dragged her towards Derek's office.

Both of the men were too caught up in their conversation and "basketball game" to notice their significant others' entrance behind them.

"So meet at eight tomorrow?" Derek asked as he shot the foam ball towards the hoop. A miss.

Owen caught the ball midair and tossed it into the hoop. "Yeah, sounds good. We can just meet up in parking lot before we head up there."

"Head up where?"

Both men quickly turned around in surprise at Cristina's question and sudden presence. And both looked slightly guilty – especially _her _guy.

"Oh…uh…" Owen stammered, looking to Derek for an explanation.

"We're going camping." Derek cheerfully announced.

Cristina couldn't help but smirk at the mental image of her man taking an L.L. Bean clad McDreamy out into the wilderness. "Well, have fun," she quipped.

"When are you guys coming back?" Meredith asked.

Derek smiled knowingly at his wife's question. "We're going up for the weekend. You're coming too."

Meredith's mouth dropped open in shock.

Unable to hold in her laughter at her friend's predicament, Cristina teased, "Have fun."

"What? No! I have surgery," Meredith protested.

"I had it rescheduled," Derek replied. Cristina was about to ask Meredith what she thought about having her husband as chief _now_, until Derek continued. "Actually, we arranged it so we could all have time off. We're all going!"

As far as Cristina was concerned, there were far too many "we's" in that sentence. "Umm…who's '_we_'?"

She could hear Meredith chuckling beside her as she continued to stare down Owen, who was tentatively smiling back at her. _Yep, he was dead man,_ she thought.

"Hell. No."

"No, what?" Owen asked, feigning innocence.

"No, I'm not going."

"Well, Meredith's coming," Derek replied, as if that would make her miraculously change her mind.

"Wait. I never said that I was going. Because I'm _not _going," Meredith interjected, furiously shaking her head in protest.

"Yeah. We're not going," Cristina added, holding back the urge to fist bump her best friend in solidarity.

"It will be fun," Owen lamely offered.

"And you can tell me all about it when you get back."

"Plus, who will be here to work?" Meredith asked.

Derek smiled and gestured out the window. "It's not as if there's a shortage of doctors who work in this hospital. I think that they'll be fine without us for a couple days."

Cristina was about to start listing the _many_ reasons why she was sure that that wasn't the case when the office door creaked open and Alex's head popped through.

"Hey. So, uh, we're still on for eight tomorrow?"

Owen nodded at him, ignoring Cristina's silent, curse-filled rant she was mouthing at him. "Yep. Eight o'clock in the front parking lot."

"Thanks again for inviting me. I really needed the break."

Both men smiled at Alex's appreciation of their plan. "Of course! See you tomorrow," Owen replied.

With a smile, Alex closed the door - only to have it opened a second later by a much louder Mark Sloan.

"Hunt!" he yelled. "Word is around the hospital that you're throwing a party tomorrow. How did I not know about this?"

"Because there's no party – we're going camping," Derek corrected.

"You're free to join," Owen added.

"Oh, uh…camping, huh?" Mark scratched the back of his neck in contemplation, as if this was some life-or-death decision. Cristina felt like smacking him. "Where are you going?"

Derek furrowed his brow and directed the question to Owen. "Where are we going again? I forget." He looked back towards Sloan, nodding towards Owen. "It was his idea."

"_His_ idea?" Cristina angrily interrupted. While she sensed that this whole "plan" had Owen written all over it, she still couldn't help but feel even more pissed off that he'd been keeping this plan from her the whole time.

Owen cautiously looked over towards her before he slowly continued. "Uh…yeah. We're going up to Brainbridge Island for the weekend. You're welcome to…" he trailed off as Mark turned around to look back at Cristina.

"Did I miss something?" Mark asked, dividing his attention between Owen's innocent face and Cristina's glare.

"Uhh…." Owen hesitated.

"Because it looks like you're not getting any tonight."

"Mark!" Derek interjected.

"What? He isn't." Mark innocently shrugged.

Cristina had heard enough. With one last scathing glare at Owen, she left the room, slamming the office door in her wake. Sloan might be a self-absorbed idiot, but he was certainly right about his last observation.

So much for her great day.A camping trip? _Seriously?_ Hell would freeze over and surgery would become obsolete before she ever allowed herself to step foot into the wilderness.

**...**

Hell froze over at seven o'clock the next morning.

Still furious with Owen, Cristina had spent the night at the hospital. Or at least until Bailey had found her in the obscure seventh floor on-call room she was hiding in. She'd informed her that not only was Cristina off-duty, but that she was too old to be hiding from her boyfriend in the hospital. And that she had five minutes to get her sorry self out before she banned her from the OR for a week.

Now even angrier at Owen for sending Bailey to find her (and threaten her with denial of surgery no less!), Cristina begrudgingly made her way to the residents' lounge to change. As she threw open the door and walked over to her locker, she noticed a stack of what she could only describe as "outdoorsy attire" neatly folded in her cubby. _Gee, thanks, babe._ _How thoughtful of you._

She really didn't understand why it was such a big deal for her to come. Owen had to know that she would be miserable the whole time. As she walked through the hospital's front doors, Cristina briefly considered sneaking away to their apartment until she saw Meredith's expression through Derek's car window. Her face said it all; there was no way that she was going to let Cristina skip out on this little trip. Yep, she was screwed.

With one last longing glance back towards the hospital, Cristina got into Owen's truck and slammed the door as hard as she could. Just to make a point.

"Missed you last night."

Cristina ignored Owen's comment and continued to stare out the window; she wasn't going to give in that easily.

"I really think you're going to enjoy this. I promise. I wouldn't have made you go otherwise."

She finally tore her gaze away from the hospital and glared back at him.

Undeterred, Owen continued, "And there's this one point that you'll –"

"Owen," she growled, "I'm in the car. There's no need to sell it to me anymore. Okay?"

Owen nodded back at her. Really, what did he expect? For her to suddenly change her mind and have a desire to go explore the wilderness? Ha. Not happening.

With a sigh, she turned back around and resumed staring out the window, observing the haphazard little group assembling in the parking lot. One thing was for certain: with this group, it was going to be one hell of a weekend.

**...  
**

Their car ride up to the island was performed in complete silence. In fact, it had been four hours since Cristina had uttered a single word as she sat on her log and watched the group set-up camp and go out to the river to fish. And that was _exactly_ how she liked it. As far as she was concerned, her only job this weekend was to defend herself against bugs while watching Owen perform various physical activities and admiring the view.

"Avery is probably performing a quadruple bypass right now."

Meredith looked away from the group fly-fishing in the river. "What?"

"Or maybe even a quintuple bypass with an aortic dissection. Probably trying it with the _da Vinci S_ just for the hell of it too. Jackson Avery – the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Harper Avery award."

"Let it go."

_Not a chance, _Cristina thoughtas shecontinued on in an airy tone, "And Doctor Yang, where were you when this momentous operation was being performed? Well, Mr. Prestigious Medical Journal Reporter, I was in the woods sitting on a log."

Meredith chuckled at her mock interview. "Will you stop? We're here now. And as long as we're here we might as well enjoy it."

"Enjoy what? The bugs? The dirt? The mosquitoes?" Cristina asked, slapping her arm at said pest biting her arm. She'd already applied three gallons of insect repellant; one more spray and her future kids were going to have three eyes.

"This." Meredith gestured around. "It's peaceful; it's a beautiful day; and the men are looking all…manly."

"Well, mine does at least." He did. If she weren't so angry with him still, she would drag his fine self off to the truck right now and do all sorts of things to him that would make her married log-mate blush.

Cristina finally looked away from watching Owen cast when she felt Meredith elbow her side and gesture towards Sloan - who was_ still_ pathetically staring at Lexie. "Hey, Sloan! Take a picture – it'll last longer," she yelled out to him.

Mark quickly turned around and glared back at her. "Screw you, Yang!"

"You wish!"

Cristina grinned as she saw Owen freeze mid-cast, staring gape-mouthed at their exchange. She waved at him and called out, "Doin' great, honey! You keep on fishing those fish we could have bought on sale at the store!"

Owen smiled and shook his head, either in confusion or amusement. _Probably both_, she thought.

"You're horrible."

Cristina shrugged. "What? He keeps staring at Little Grey with those sad, puppy eyes. It's annoying. Plus, he deserves the embarrassment. He tricked me into doing a penile implant, remember?"

Meredith only rolled her eyes in response.

After watching her fellow surgeons attempt to fish for an hour, Cristina came to the conclusion that watching this "show" was almost worth putting up with this whole camping nonsense. Hell, watching Sloan hook himself no less than five times within the past ten minutes as he attempted to fish "better" than Alex was the funniest damn thing she'd seen in a long time.

"So how are things?"

"Things?" Cristina questioned, furrowing her brow.

"With you and Owen?" Meredith asked.

Oh, it was going to be one of _those_ kinds of conversations. "Fine. Why?" she asked cautiously. It wasn't exactly a secret that her best friend still didn't completely approve of him.

"Just asking. How do you like the new apartment?"

"It's nice."

"Just _nice_?" Meredith pressed.

"Yeah," Cristina nodded. "It's nice. I like it. He cooks. I eat. He watches football. I watch operations. He –"

"How do you do that?" Meredith asked, cutting her off.

"What?"

"Watch operations while he watches football?"

"Oh," Cristina smiled at the memory of Owen's "idea". "Two TVs. Owen's idea of the century – two side-by-side TVs so we can watch TV together."

"That's clever. I should mention it to Derek. How's it at night?"

"Well, we can be as loud as we want now without an annoying knock on our door."

"I mean- is he sleeping okay? He hasn't had an attack or anything?"

Cristina sighed. Yep, here came the interrogation. She'd been very open with Meredith about her and Owen's decision to continue seeing Dr. Wyatt, but Meredith still would not let it go. "What's with all of the questions?" Cristina asked, a little more harshly than she intended.

"I'm just worried about you," Meredith replied.

Cristina paused, appreciative of her friend's concern and softened her voice. "There's nothing to worry about. He's still in therapy. We're still in therapy. He hasn't had any trouble sleeping in months. You don't have to worry."

"So that's it?"

"Uh…yeah."

"Nothing_ else_ going on?" Meredith pressed, with a distinct gleam in her eye.

Cristina was done playing twenty questions. "Just spit it out. What do you really want to know?"

Meredith coyly smiled. "Well, has he mentioned getting a little more serious?"

_Huh._ Apparently Owen had somehow gone up a few notches in Meredith's book. When had _that _happened? "You mean, are we going to be joining you on the Office Depot post-it of love anytime soon?"

Meredith laughed, brushing off the dig, "Well…are you?"

"On a post-it? Oh, no. You know I love you Mer, but that was ridiculous!"

"Okay, okay. But what about city hall?"

_Yep, time to put an end to this conversation, _she thought_._ Cristina reached over the log to grab her canteen and took a long sip of water before offering it over to Meredith. "Water?"

"You're avoiding my question."

"No, I'm not. I'm simply trying to figure out why you suddenly want to talk about this. What exactly about being stuck in the middle of the woods is making you want to talk about this?"

Meredith gave her a cheeky smile and pointed to a nearby tree. "The birds nesting over there."

Cristina rolled her eyes. Obviously, someone had inhaled too much _Off _repellant.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Has it ever come up?"

"What?"

Meredith cocked her head to the side, seeing through her in an instant. "You know what I mean. Spill."

Cristina kept her lips pressed together.

"I'll keep asking."

"He might have mentioned something in passing," Cristina murmured.

"Really? What did you say?"

Cristina dismissed Meredith's excitement and bulging eyes with a wave of her hand. "Nothing. He just mentioned it. It really wasn't even a question – he just was talking about the future I guess."

"_And_?" Meredith raised her eyebrows for her to continue.

"And what?"

"What else?"

"There's nothing else." Cristina let out a huff and pointed to her fingers. "Has he asked me? No. Has he mentioned the 'M' word? Yes."

"And you're okay with this?"

"Yeah," Cristina shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Suddenly, Meredith leaned forward and embraced Cristina in a tight hug, catching her completely off-guard.

After a few moments, Meredith finally released her. Confused, Cristina asked, "What was that for?"

"I'm just happy for you. We're both leaning into the fear."

"Thanks Oprah," Cristina quipped. "Really, it's not that a big of a deal. He already told me that he wants to be around in forty years, so I figured that at some point he'd start talking about making it official."

"When did he say that?"

"Umm…at Joe's. But that was before we were even really dating though so…what?" Cristina stopped, noticing her friend's dropped jaw.

"He told you that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you before you were even _dating_?" Meredith exclaimed, bug-eyed.

"Yeah," Cristina shrugged. "That's just him."

As if on cue, Owen and Derek walked up towards them with no less than ten fish in their hands. "Look what we caught," Owen proudly announced.

Cristina smirked. "Oh, look, Meredith, the men have brought us food. We don't have to scavenge for nuts and berries now."

Owen simply smirked back at her and continued on to the campsite behind them.

"Hey, look! Alex caught three!" Lexie cheerfully announced.

_What was this? Show and tell?_ Alex must have noticed Cristina's annoyed expression and gave her a little half-shrug at his girlfriend's exuberance.

"We should start cooking them before it gets too dark."

Owen nodded at Derek's suggestion. "I'll go get the coals."

Confused, Cristina interrupted the duo. "Where are you going to cook them?"

"In the fire pit," Owen replied, as if this was completely obvious.

Cristina looked around at their little campsite. There were tents, cars, and food, but no fire pit. "What fire pit?"

Owen smiled. "We're going to make one," he explained, as he continued to gather large rocks.

Okay, this was officially too much outdoors than she could handle. After thinking about eating a fish cooked outside in the dirt, she stood up and announced, "That's it. I'm leaving."

Meredith simply laughed and pulled her back down on the log.

"Fine. But I'm going to need a drink then. Something strong."

"We didn't bring any."

"We didn't…" Cristina threw her hands up in the air, "Oh, just shoot me now!"

Meredith chuckled and pulled her up off the log. "Come on. Let's go help them."

"Do what? I don't even cook at home!"

"You could cut the fish."

"Do I get to stitch them up?"

Meredith gave her a look.

Cristina sat back down on the log. "Then no. I'm staying here on my log."

"Come on," Meredith said, as she pulled her backup off the log. "You're coming with me."

**...**

_Bzzzzzz. Bzzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzz. Bzz_…._ SMACK!_

_Crap. Missed it again._ That damn bug was hell-bent on keeping her awake all night long. What part of this was supposed to be fun again? She was hot, sticky, dirty, and most importantly starving. Although, she had to grudgingly admit that the last problem was probably on account of her refusing to eat dinner.

She still had no idea what she was doing up here. There were people who were built for these kinds of conditions. She was _not _one of those people. She belonged in an OR – not in the middle of the godforsaken wilderness about to be eaten by a bear. She just wanted to go home.

"Cristina?" Owen whispered. "Hey, wake up," he nudged again.

While she contemplated continuing her silent treatment toward him, she was too tired to argue. "I'm awake," she groaned.

"Good – "

"I've been awake because I've been listening to this damn mosquito buzz around my ear for the past two hours."

"Get dressed. We're leaving," he whispered back.

"What?" Cristina shot straight up into the sitting position. "We're leaving?"

"Yeah, but…shhh," he whispered in her ear, "…we have to be quiet."

If it meant that she got to leave, she wouldn't say another word all night. "Thank you!" she excitedly whispered back. She leaned forward to kiss him, but instead hit her forehead against his. "Sorry."

She attempted to feel her way around the tent to find her clothes, but quickly found that it was hopeless because she couldn't see a damn thing.

"I need a flashlight. I can't find my clothes."

Suddenly, her clothes miraculously appeared in her hand. "Here you go," Owen whispered.

"How can you see?"

"It's a full moon. Your eyes will adjust - it takes just a couple minutes."

Cristina rolled her eyes. See if he saw _that_. "Or we could use the magic of electricity and use a flashlight," she remarked.

"But that would wake up the others. I don't want them to know we're leaving."

_Okay, never mind then._ Cristina nodded back to Owen (who she assumed could see her) and quickly threw on her clothes. After she was dressed, she stepped out of the tent and into the moonlit night. Owen was right; the full moon did make it slightly easier to see. Instead of pitch-blackness, she could begin to make out some vague grayish shapes against the black trees.

Since she wasn't sure which direction the truck was parked in, she simply stayed in place as Owen folded up their sleeping bags and tent. After a few minutes, she was able to see a little better and attempted to quietly walk over to help Owen – only to trip over all of the pots and pans, causing them to crash and clang loudly in the night.

As she pushed herself back up off the ground, she felt Owen grab her arm to help her up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I can't see," she whispered.

"Just stay here. I'll be right back."

After a few minutes, Owen walked back over with their tent and sleeping bags securely strapped to his back. She was about to follow him when he stopped her to tie a rope around her waist.

"Uh, what?"

Owen leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Just a safety line until you can see so you don't get lost in the dark."

Cristina nodded her understanding and quietly followed him with one hand securely holding the rope.

They'd only walked a short distance from camp, but Cristina was starting to have a bad feeling that they were walking in the_ opposite _direction of the truck.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Yes." Owen answered without turning around.

"Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure that the truck's _that _way."

"I know."

"What do you mean 'I know'? Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"It's a what?" Cristina jerked their "safety line" as hard as she could, pulling him to a stop. "You said we were leaving."

"We did."

"Home. You said we were leaving to go home."

"No. I said that we were leaving…to go somewhere better," he added.

_Oh, hell no._ Cristina gave their safety line another hard tug. "I'm not going anywhere except home!" He began to interrupt, but she continued to rant, "I can't see. I'm in the middle of the woods about to be eaten by a bear. Take. Me. Home!"

"Not yet," Owen softly replied.

"If you had _any_ idea how much I want to kill you right now, you would not be standing so close," she growled back.

Owen, however, held his ground, asking, "Do you trust me?"

"I hate you."

"Do you trust me though?"

Cristina remained silent. Of course, she did.

Owen lowered his voice to a breathy whisper, "Come with me. I promise you'll like it."

Cristina held his gaze (as far as she could tell in the dark) and finally rolled her eyes in defeat. "Fine - but only because I don't want to be eaten by a bear before I can call someone to tell them that you've kidnapped me."

She could hear Owen chuckle as he turned away. "I haven't kidnapped you. Think of this as an adventure."

"Oh, I'm definitely thinking of this as _something_ and it sure as hell isn't an adventure."

**...**

They'd continued their trek into the woods without uttering another word. Cristina could tell from the incline that they were walking up some sort of hill, but besides that, she had absolutely no idea where they were going. She'd lost track of her bearings once they left the river. She couldn't even tell how long they'd been walking. The one thing she did know for certain was that she was quickly tiring of Owen's little "adventure."

"How much farther?"

Owen walked back towards her. "Not too much farther."

"Do you even know where you're going?"

"Yes, I grew up in these woods."

Cristina scanned the dark forest. "Are we even on a trail anymore? I can't see a damn thing."

"Kind of."

"_Kind of_?"

"Not a lot of people know about it."

_Great._ "That's comforting," Cristina sarcastically retorted.

"Don't worry. I know where we're going." As if to prove his point, Owen turned around and continued walking up the supposed trail

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe the woods have changed since you were here last? Like bears could live on this trail now?"

Owen laughed. "What is with you and bears? There are no bears on this trail."

"But they live here."

"I've never heard of a bear on this island. You're safe."

"Oh, yeah," Cristina scoffed, "Walking in the woods in the middle of the night without a flashlight – never been safer."

"I used to train at night all the time in the Army. Don't worry."

"You do realize that that's the tenth time you've said 'don't worry'?" _Bam_. Her foot connected with a rock. "Shit!" Cristina stopped and tried to feel which toe she'd injured; she wasn't going to have a functional set of toes by the time this evening stroll was over. "Can I have a flashlight now?"

"I left them back at camp."

"Why'd I even ask?" Cristina mumbled.

"I got you," Owen promised, giving their line a playful tug.

"Yes, caveman. I'm still attached. How much further to your cave?"

"It's not too much farther," Owen chuckled in amusement.

**...**

"There it is."

Cristina trudged up behind him on her blister-laden feet in relief. "Thank god, because I couldn't have…Uh, wow."

Nestled in the tree line above them was a gorgeous, two-story cabin with its fine architecture illuminated by its large lit windows. After two hours of hiking in the darkness, this was the _last _thing Cristina was expecting. As far as she was concerned, they'd just discovered the northwest's Shangri-La.

"Better than camping?" Owen asked, grinning over his shoulder.

"Hell yeah!"

"I told you that you'd like it."

"Why didn't we come here first?"

Owen smiled. "Because then it wouldn't have been as exciting."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "I'm going to have to redefine my idea of exciting to you."

"You mean you didn't like the hike?"

Cristina simply cocked her eyebrow at him. Sometimes, he really didn't deserve a response.

"Well, did I mention there's a shower?"

"What are we waiting here for?" To emphasize her point, she grabbed their line and dragged him towards the cabin.

**...**

Cristina awoke the next morning to the familiar sensation of Owen gently tracing her jaw-line with his finger. With her eyes still closed to revel in the last vestiges of sleep, she leaned forward and gently kissed his lips.

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Morning," she whispered back, wrapping her arm around his chest to snuggle into his warmth. She could tell by the sound of his voice that he'd been up for a while, but she wasn't ready leave the comfort of their bed just yet.

Just as she was about to drift off again, she felt Owen lift her off the bed in his arms– blankets and all – and start walking towards the door. Jolted awake, Cristina's eyes flew open in surprise. "What? What are you doing?" She tried to get out his hold, but he only held her tighter to his chest.

"Showing you why I brought you up here," he softly replied.

Curious, but still half-awake, Cristina relaxed in his arms as he carried her out to the deck outside.

It had been so dark when they had first arrived to the cabin that Cristina hadn't realized where it was located. From the upper deck, they had an unobstructed view of the surrounding islands and ocean, which extended as far as the eye could see. The pinkish hue of the pre-dawn sky cast a warm tint on the calm sea. It was beautiful. She was about to make a comment, before Owen wrapped the blanket tighter around them and whispered in her ear, "Wait for it."

Cristina looked around and cocked her brow in question, but Owen simply kissed her temple in response and nodded back towards the horizon, repeating again, "Wait for it."

She turned back around and leaned back to his chest to wait for "it." Whatever "it" was. Slowly the sky warmed from a light pink to a brighter orange until suddenly the sun crested over the horizon and drenched everything in bright gold. The ocean was instantly changed from a dark indigo to a sea of blinding, glimmering gold waves. The sunlight, highlighting the dew on the pines, made the trees seem to sparkle. It was breathtaking.

"It's beautiful," Cristina finally managed to whisper.

"I've wanted to show you this for so long."

Touched, Cristina turned around to gently cup his face with her palm and kiss his lips. "Thank you," she whispered.

"I love you."

She couldn't help but smile and leaned in to kiss him again; this time raking her fingers in his soft, red hair and deepening the kiss. Finally out of breath, she pulled back and saw that he was warmly smiling back at her. With one last kiss, she turned back around in his arms to look out at the vista before them.

"Love you, too."

**...**

Cristina emerged from the shower several hours later feeling utterly refreshed and reinvigorated. As she dried off her hair, she could smell the distinct aroma of pancakes wafting from down the hall. She smiled to herself. The man was good.

She quickly threw on a robe and followed the smell of Owen's cooking down the hall. Reaching the large, rustic kitchen, she leaned against the doorway and watched him flip the pancakes on the griddle; smiling at his serious expression as he concentrated on his cooking.

After a few moments, he finally noticed her standing in the doorway and looked up at her as if he'd never seen her before. "You're beautiful."

Cristina had to quickly glance down before he caught her blush. She hated how he could turn her into such a "girl" so easily. "You're not to bad yourself," she teasingly remarked back.

Owen returned his focus to the breakfast he was preparing before him. "So how do you like 'camping'?"

"I_ love_ camping!" she emphatically quipped as she hopped up on the kitchen counter.

He laughed and moved over to give her a quick kiss. "So maybe this wasn't such a bad idea?"

"Now this," she said, gesturing around the cabin, "…was a great idea. Why'd you almost ruin it with all of the fishing and pitching tents crap?"

Owen grinned and began to plate the pancakes.

Suddenly a thought popped into her head. _No, he wouldn't. _"Was all of this just an elaborate scheme to get me up here?"

He looked up at her with a sheepish shrug. "I wouldn't call it a scheme, but how else was I going to get you to come up here?"

"Umm…you could have mentioned that we were going to stay here instead of a tent."

"Stay in a cabin in the woods?" he asked, cocking his eyebrow.

He had a point. "Okay, maybe I wouldn't have come. But still – arranging for everyone to have time off to come up here? That was a little elaborate you have to admit."

Owen handed her a plate and walked over towards the fridge, grabbing some maple syrup out of the side drawer. "Nah - they all needed a break anyways. This way it works out well for everyone. They get to relax, and I get to have you up here all to myself."

"How'd you find out about this place anyways?"

Owen leaned against the counter and began to eat alongside her, shrugging, "It's mine – or well, it was my grandparents', but they gave it to me."

Cristina paused, fork midair. "It's _yours_? Why haven't you ever mentioned it before?"

"I haven't been up here since I've been back. I wanted to come up here with you first."

His admission took her aback and touched her deeply. She swallowed the unexpected emotion in her throat and quickly changed the subject. "So where'd all of the food come from?"

"Oh, I had Joe come up yesterday and get the place ready for us."

"Vet Joe or Joe's Bar Joe?"

"Vet Joe."

"I like that Joe." She really did. He was one of the few people who understood her sense of humor. Plus, he had all sorts of great stories about Owen in college. Mr. Straight-laced Army Major had quite the wild streak in college.

"Yeah, he comes up here a lot, so he's been keeping an eye on the place for me while I've been gone."

Cristina handed her dish over to him. "These were great by the way," gesturing down towards her clean plate.

"Thanks."

With Owen distracted washing the dishes, Cristina slipped off of the counter and walked towards the door. Once he turned his back to her, she quickly slipped off her robe and seductively purred, "You know what _else_ would be great?"

"What?"

Cristina waited for him to turn around. It was worth the wait. She grinned as he stared at her slack-jawed in shock and appreciation. "Well?" she asked, gesturing towards the bedroom.

She didn't have to wait for his response; he crossed the room in three large steps and engulfed her lips in a passionate kiss. God, she loved it when he kissed her like that. She wrapped her arms and legs around him as he carried her down the hall towards the bedroom.

Owen wasn't the only one with great ideas around here.

**...**

"So would you like to come up here again?"

_If you keep doing what you're doing right now_, Cristina thought, as Owen placed a light trail of kisses along her collar bone and up her neck. "If we skip the ten hour hike, I'll come up here every weekend with you if you want."

"Sure thing," Owen murmured, as he concentrated his attention down towards her breasts. "Next time we'll drive up here."

"Drive? You can drive up here?"

"Yeah."

_What? _Cristina leaned up and looked out the window. "There's a driveway? Are you kidding me? Why the hell did we hike up here?"

Owen ignored her and pulled her back down to the bed on top of him where he resumed lavishing his attention on her. "For the adventure."

"What is with you and adventure? I can do without the adventure – really."

"Really?"

Cristina paused as she noticed the mischievous gleam in his eye. Suddenly, he flipped her over, causing her to laugh in surprise.

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised how much you like it," he huskily whispered.

Unable to concentrate while Owen was kissing her senseless, Cristina could only lamely retort, "Prove it army man."

Lucky for her, he did. Three times.

**...**

Three hours later, Cristina was stretched out sunbathing on the padded lounge swing on the upper deck. Now _this_ was camping. She was about to doze off when she heard Owen's heavy footsteps walk across the deck.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

_Go? Go where?_ They had just gotten here. "What? Why do we have to go?"

"We have to head back."

Cristina sat up with a groan. "Why? I like it here."

Owen looked down at her. "The others are going to start to wonder where we went."

"I don't care." The odds that their campmates were giving them a second thought after they'd seen that they'd packed up in the middle of the night was slim to none. Meredith was probably begging Derek to follow suit at this very moment.

"But they might get worried. I left a note, but they might get concerned we've been gone so long and send out a search party for us."

"Let them." Cristina started to laugh at the mental image of Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan hiking through the wilderness "tracking" them. "It'd take Pretty and Prettier a week before they even found the trail we took."

She saw that he was about to protest so she pulled him down to the chair and sat in his lap. "Let's stay," she purred in his ear.

Owen paused, clearly torn, before he pulled back and shook his head. "No. We have to go. But we can come back whenever you want. It's our place after all."

"Fine."

Owen offered his hand and pulled her up off the swinging bench. She really wished that they could stay. After one last walkthrough the house, she went outside and waited for Owen to lock up.

She began to walk towards the trailhead until she heard Owen call out behind her. "Here. Wait." Cristina stopped and turned around – only to have a handful of dirt get smeared down the front of her shirt. She gasped in shock at Owen's behavior. "What the hell?"

"Have to look the part. I didn't say anything about staying in a cabin."

She gave him one hard glare and then grabbed two large handfuls of dirt and threw them on top of his head. "And _I_ didn't say anything about wanting to get dirty when I just took a shower."

Cristina grinned in triumph, as Owen had to shake his head to get the dirt out of his now light brown hair.

"Fair enough," he coughed. "Come on. Let's go."

**...**

It only took them forty-five minutes to hike back down to camp. As Cristina had pointed out to Owen several times during their hike, it was significantly easier in the daylight – or if they had used flashlights.

They'd barely set foot into camp before Meredith ran up to her.

"I'm sorry."

_For what?_ Not knowing what Owen had told them, Cristina simply shrugged.

"I heard about your little expedition," Meredith continued. "I would have tried to stop him."

Cristina gave her an appreciative smile. "I survived."

Meredith was soon joined by her post-it husband. "So, how was the lake?" Derek asked.

"What?"

"It was great," Owen answered behind her, quickly walking over to her side.

"Yeah, not what I was expecting at all!" Cristina added, feeling Owen give her hand a little squeeze.

"Why are you packing up already?" Owen asked.

"Because there's a bear! Didn't you hear it last night?" Meredith replied.

Derek gestured over towards the tents. "A bear came through the camp last night. It knocked down all of our cooking supplies – caused a huge mess."

Cristina nearly snorted. "Really? You don't say," she dramatically said, as she felt Owen's grip on her hand tighten.

"It was so scary!" Lexie added behind them. "We all heard it walking through the camp."

She was about to make a comment to add to their hysteria, but Owen interjected, "It wasn't a bear. They don't live here."

"Oh, no. It was a bear," Lexie emphatically nodded. "I heard it."

_Try again, Lexipedia. No bear - just a blind cardio surgeon_, she thought.

Alex shrugged. "It was something big that's for sure."

Owen chuckled beside her. "I really don't think it was a bear."

"Really, Hunt? No bear?" Mark shouted from down the road. "How 'bout you come over here and check this out then?"

The group walked down the dirt road to find a furious Mark Sloan with his brand new Porsche – which now had both of its doors bashed in and convertible top ripped off.

"Then what the hell do you think did this?"

"Uh…" Owen stammered in shock beside her.

Cristina elbowed him in the side. "Bears." _Okay, camping trip officially over._ She hooked her arm in Owen's and pulled him towards his truck. "We're getting out of here."

"What about my car?" Mark yelled behind them.

Owen gave one last glance at the ruined sports car over his shoulder and noted, "You're going to have to have it towed."

Cristina smirked at the Owen's remark. _You don't say, Captain Obvious?_

"I'd say that that's enough wilderness for the weekend, right?" Owen asked.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Cristina agreed with a smile.

"Let's get out of here."

**...**

Cristina came back with Owen to the cabin two weeks later.

They drove.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Once again, thanks again to my great beta-reader Shli :)


End file.
